“It is our priority to ensure dairy farmers affected by the recent crisis get the support they need, and this package will go a long way to helping families cope with the emotional and financial stress they face,” VFF President Peter Tuohey said

“The VFF and its dairy arm, the United Dairyfarmers of Victoria, have been working closely with the State Government to deliver this support to crisis-hit farmers.”

The package includes additional funding to Lifeline, $940,000 for extra counselling services, $345,000 in grants to encourage affected communities to support each other and $150,000 to train 750 people in mental health and first aid.

Meanwhile, Federal Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce said he was continuing to shape an assistance package with targeted measures, to support embattled dairy farmers.

Mr Joyce has also thrown his support behind a marketing campaign by Coles to establish a dairy industry support fund via a 20 cents per litre milk price increase.

The Nationals leader, Regional Development and Regional Health Minister Fiona Nash and Health Minister Sussan Ley met with dairy industry leaders and farmers this week near Shepparton.

Closed door talks were held at the Pactum Dairy Processing Facility to help the government fine-tune its response to the viability crisis.

Coles announced this week it would launch a new milk brand to help put more money into the pockets of more than 2600 dairy farmers in Victoria, NSW and Tasmania with the additional 20c per litre to be deposited into a dedicated fund.

The decision was met with cynicism from many dairy farmers.

The company has been castigated for selling milk at $1 per litre since 2011, which industry members warned was unsustainable, but said it would now also contribute $1 million to set-up a sustainable dairy industry fund, to administer the 20c initiative.

Mr Joyce said he had asked other major retailers to follow Coles and increase their milk prices.

“I know other people that have a sense of cynicism about it, I don’t,” he said after the closed door meeting.

“I’ll always commend people when they do the right thing.

“Let’s make sure we get a whole range of the retailers understanding how important it is to get a price of milk that actually reflects the work that the dairy farmers put in.